Police rescue two dogs from muddy cove at Lake Hopatcong

These two muddy dogs were rescued from a cove at Lake Hopatcong.Hopatcong police

HOPATCONG — Two dogs that were rescued from a muddy cove at Lake Hopatcong were returned to their owner, thanks to an alert neighbor and a Hopatcong policeman.

Police were notified Tuesday that two dogs were stuck in the mud off Hudson Avenue at a cove at Lake Hopatcong, which is being drained five feet to allow lakeside residents and business owners to make dock repairs.

When he arrived, Hopatcong Officer Christopher Lotito saw the dogs had sunk up to their stomachs in the muck and one dog had mud up to its bottom jaw, Lt. Thomas Kmetz said.

Lotito was able to coax the dogs out of the mud, but they began running along the shoreline and could not be rescued until a nearby resident, Christine Milcheck, who lives on Hudson Avenue, provided Lotito with two leashes, said Kmetz.

“Thank you, Christine, for your assistance and patience,” Kmetz wrote in a news release.

Police later learned the owner of the dogs, an elderly woman, cannot drive due to a medical condition, and Lotito returned her dogs to her. Kmetz said the dogs had gotten loose from the woman’s yard.